accomplished would prove an inevitable failure. All they aim at, therefore, is to make only such corrections as the progress of the language or of Biblical science may render necessary, and in all changes to preserve, as far as possible, the very form and spirit of the existing Bible. Each of them heartily concurs in the judgment pronounced on this point by a late distinguished pervert to Romanism, Dr. F. W. Faber, with whose eloquent and touching words this paper concludes:

FABER ON KING JAMES'S VERSION.-"Who will say that the uncommon beauty and marvellous English of the Protestant Bible is not one of the great strongholds of heresy in this country? It lives on the ear, like music that can never be forgotten, like the sound of church bells, which the convert hardly knows how he can forego. Its felicities often seem to be almost things rather than words. It is part of the national mind, and the anchor of national seriousness. Nay, it is worshiped with a positive idolatry, in extenuation of whose grotesque fanaticism its intrinsic beauty pleads availingly with the man of letters and the scholar. The memory of the dead passes into it. The potent traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its verses. The power of all the griefs and trials of a man are hid beneath its words. It is the representative of his best moments, and all that there has been about him of soft and gentle, and pure and penitent and good, speaks to him forever out of his Protestant Bible. It is his sacred thing which doubt has never dimmed and controversy never soiled."

REASONS FOR A NEW REVISION OF THE

SCRIPTURES IN ENGLISH.

BY THEODORE D. WOOLSEY, D.D., LL.D.,

Ex-President of Yale College.

Valid reasons for a new revision of the Scriptures must be found, if they exist, either in a better acquaintance with the original texts than was possible for those who prepared our authorized English version, or in the advance of scholarship since the beginning of the eighteenth century, or in the changes of the English language within the two centuries and a half since King James's version appeared. Each of these considerations will form, as I understand, the subject of a separate article. It will not be expected, therefore, that the writer should say more on either of them than will be enough to present his case to his readers as a distinct whole, dependent for its justice and force on what others will say more fully and convincingly.

DEMAND FOR REVISIONS.-There is, however, one other consideration, drawn from fact and experience, which deserves to find a place here at the beginning of our remarks. If a translation of a book like the sacred Scriptures were a very easy task, to be undertaken once for all-if the scholarship of the first ages after the conversion of a nation to Christianity could solve all the problems of interpretation which they present-what reason could there be for the repeated demands, in almost every country where Christianity has gained a foothold, for revised and corrected or for wholly new translations? Does not this demand show at once a real want, and a strong desire to reach a better translation than any previous age has produced?

VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS.-Let us be permitted to illustrate, by an example or two, the force of this argument, from experience. Origen, the great Christian scholar of the third century after Christ, arranged in parallel columns the Hebrew text of the old Scriptures, both in Hebrew and Greek letters, and seven Greek translations by their side-those of Aquila, Symmachus, the Seventy, Theodotion, and three others, called the fifth, sixth, and seventh editions, of which very little is left on record. In the Syriac there are five or six versions, or recensions, beginning with the Peshito, which goes back to the second century. In our own language, the authorized version of King James makes the ninth translation of the whole or of a considerable part of the Scriptures, not to count quite a number since the Authorized Version appeared, and for which, generally, single persons are responsible.

These illustrations show that as the Christian religion gains firmer hold in a nation, there is a desire felt for a more accurate translation than has been handed down from the past. They seem to show also that there are permanent causes for recensions or revisions of translations, which are acknowledged, like our existing version, to be, on the whole, exceedingly good. What are some of these causes?

1. FIRST REASON FOR A NEW REVISION.-The first is the gradual change to which languages-at least most languages-are.subject. Old words drop out of use, or lose certain meanings, so as to puzzle many readers; or, by being used in new senses, they acquire a certain ambiguity, which needs to be removed, for the sake of the common reader. It is true that a well-executed version, like our English one, tends to preserve a language from

a number of changes which would otherwise be inevitable; but it is true, also, that an ancient translation, preserved on account of the veneration which is felt towards it, may even do harm to religion by obscuring thoughts which would otherwise be clear.

ELEVATION OF BIBLICAL STYLE.-We would here guard against a wrong inference which might be drawn from our remarks, as if in a translation for the nineteenth century, the words most in use in the century, and most familiar to the ears of the people, ought always to take the place of others less in use, which, however, retain their place in the language. This is far from being a safe rule. One of the most important impressions which the Word of God makes is made by its venerableness. The dignity and sanctity of the truth are supported by the elevation of the style, and woe be to the translator who should seek to vulgarize the Bible, on the plea of rendering it more intelligible. Understood it must be, and this must be provided for by removing the ambiguities and obscurities to which changes in society and changes in the expression of thought give rise. But as long as the English is a living tongue, the style of the Scriptures must be majestic, and removed from all vulgarity. Indeed, it must be such as it is now, with those exceptions, few in number, which time brings with it, and most of which will hardly be noticed by the cursory reader.

2. GREEK MANUSCRIPTS.-A second reason for a new revision of our authorized version is found in the scanty knowledge of the state of the original text which was accessible at the time when that version saw the light. The main object in attempting to discover what are the texts followed in manuscripts of the Scriptures, or by

early Christian writers in their citations, or by the early translators into foreign tongues, is to ascertain, as far as possible, just what was written or dictated by the sacred writers. The scribes and other authorities to whom we owe our texts were subject to the same mistakes with any other copyists; and it is of the first importance that we should know what text, in any given case, is to be preferred to other readings. For the performance of this most laborious task there were, in the early part of the seventeenth century, no adequate materials accessible. The great accumulation of readings, and the new conviction of the importance of the critical art, in its application to the sacred text, began about the eighteenth century. Since then, above all, in the later times, multitudes of scholars have devoted themselves to the collation of manuscripts and of early versions. Numbers of manuscripts, and among them some of the most ancient, have been discovered, and the citations in the Fathers have been examined with care. The ages of manuscripts also, and the rules for estimating their comparative value, are fixed with greater precision. The skill of textual critics, and the means within their reach for determining the texts are such as to assure us, in most cases, what was the original reading; and this important end has been reached by the zeal and labors of men who have lived long since 1611, when the first edition of our present English Bible was printed.

It may frighten some of our readers to be told that there are many thousand different readings in the New Testament, collected by the labors of scholars; but they ought to be assured that the text is more certain by far than if there had been only as many hundreds, and the mass of authorities for the text had been unconsulted.